Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | |
---|---|
Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna of Russia prev. Grand Duchess consort of Hesse | |
Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna | |
Spouse | Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse (1894–1901) Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich of Russia (1905–1936) |
Issue | |
Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine Grand Duchess Maria Kirillovna of Russia Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia | |
Full name | |
Birth name: Victoria Melita Russian name: Viktoria Feodorovna Romanova | |
House | House of Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
Father | Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
Mother | Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia |
Born | San Antonio Palace, Malta | 25 November 1876
Died | 2 March 1936 59) Amorbach | (aged
Burial | 10 March 1936 The Rosenau, Coburg 7 March 1995 Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg |
Religion | Anglican then from 1907 Eastern Orthodox |
Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (25 November 1876 – 2 March 1936), was the third child and second daughter of Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. She was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria as well as of Tsar Alexander II of Russia.
Born a British Princess, Victoria spent her early life in England and for three years in Malta, where her father was serving in the Royal Navy. In 1889 the family moved to Coburg, where Victoria's father became the reigning Duke in 1893. In her teens Victoria fell in love with her maternal first cousin Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia, but they could not marry because the Orthodox Christian religion forbids the marriage between first cousins. Instead, bowing to family pressure, Victoria married in 1894 a paternal first cousin, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, following the wishes of their shared grandmother, Queen Victoria. Their marriage was a failure. Victoria scandalized the royal families of Europe when she divorced her husband in 1901. The couple's only daughter died of typhoid fever in 1903.
Victoria married Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich in 1905. They wed without the necessary approval of the Tsar. In retaliation, Nicholas II stripped Kirill of his offices and honors and Victoria and Kirill were initially banished from living in Russia. They had two daughters and settled in Paris before they were allowed to return in 1909. In 1910 they moved to Russia where she was known as Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna. After the fall of the Russian monarchy in 1917, they escaped to Finland where she gave birth to her only son. In exile they lived for some years in Germany and from the late 1920s in Saint-Briac. In 1926, Kirill proclaimed himself emperor in exile and Victoria supported her husband's claims. Victoria died after suffering a stroke while visiting her daughter Maria in Amorbach.
Early life
Victoria was born on 25 November 1876 in the San Antonio Palace in Malta, hence her second name, Melita.[1] Her father, who was stationed on the island as an officer in the Royal Navy, was Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second-eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Her mother was Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, a daughter of Alexander II of Russia and Marie of Hesse. As a grandchild of the British monarch, she was styled Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Edinburgh. To her family, she was always known as Ducky. At the time of her birth, she was tenth in the line of succession to the British throne. The princess was christened on 1 January 1877 at San Antonio Palace by a Royal Navy chaplain. Her godparents included her paternal grandmother Queen Victoria, who was represented by a proxy.[2]
After the Duke’s service in Malta was over they returned to England where the family lived for the next few years. They divided their time between Eastwell Park, their country home in Kent, and Clarence House, their residence in London facing Buckingham Palace. Eastwell, a large estate of twenty five hundred acres near Ashford, with its forest and park was the children's favorite residence.[3] It was in England where Princess Victoria spent her early years. The marriage of her parents was unhappy. The Duke was taciturn, unfaithful, prone to drinking and emotionally detached from his family. Victoria's mother was independent-minded and cultured. Although she was unsentimental and strict, the Duchess was a devoted mother and the most important person in her children's lives.[4]
As a child, Princess Victoria had a difficult temperament. She was shy, serious and sensitive. In the judgment of her sister Marie: "This passionate child was often misunderstood."[5] Princess Victoria Melita was talented at drawing and painting and learned to play the piano.[6] She was particularly close to Marie. The two sisters would remain very close throughout their lives.[7] They contrasted in appearance and personality. Victoria was dark and moody while Marie was blond and easy-going.[5] Although she was one year younger, Victoria was taller and seemed to be the older of the two.[8]
In January 1886, shortly after Princess Victoria turned nine, the family left England when her father was appointed commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean naval squadron, based on Malta. For the next three years, the family lived at the San Antonio Palace in Malta, Princess Victoria's birthplace.[9]
Youth in Coburg
As a son of Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Victoria's father was in the line of succession to the duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Alfred became the heir apparent to the duchy, when his older brother and Victoria's uncle, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) renounced his succession rights. Subsequently, the family moved to Coburg, Germany in 1889. Their pro-German mother immediately began attempting to Germanise her daughters by installing a new governess, buying them plain clothing, and having them confirmed in the German Lutheran church, even though they had previously been raised as Anglicans.[10] The children rebelled and some of the new restrictions were eased.[11]
The teenage Victoria was a "tall, dark girl, with violet eyes ... with the assuredness of an Empress and the high spirits of a tomboy," according to one observer.[12] Victoria had "too little chin to be conventionally beautiful," in the opinion of one of her biographers, but "she had a good figure, deep blue eyes, and dark complexion."[13] In 1891, Victoria travelled with her mother to the funeral of Grand Duchess Alexandra Georgievna of Russia, the wife of her mother's brother Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich. There Victoria met her first cousin Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich. Although the two were deeply attracted to each other, Victoria's mother was reluctant to allow her to marry him because the Russian Orthodox religion forbids the marriage of two first cousins. She was also suspicious of the morality of the Romanov men. When her teenage daughters were impressed by their handsome cousins, their mother warned them against the Russian grand dukes who did not make good husbands.[14]
Soon after her sister Marie was married to the Crown Prince Ferdinand of Romania, a search was made for a suitable husband for Victoria. Her visit to her grandmother Queen Victoria at Balmoral Castle in the autumn of 1891 coincided with a visit by her cousin Prince Ernest Louis of Hesse, heir to the grand ducal throne of Hesse. Both were artistic and fun loving, got along well and even shared a birthday. The Queen, observing this, was very keen for her two grandchildren to marry.[15] However both Victoria and Ernst were reluctant; Victoria had also met Kiril again in St Petersburg and had fallen in love.[16]
Grand Duchess of Hesse
Victoria and Ernst's marriage was an unhappy affair. Victoria despaired of her husband's lack of affection towards her, while Ernst devoted much of his attention to their daughter, whom he adored. Elisabeth, who physically resembled her mother, preferred the company of her father to Victoria.[18] Ernst and Victoria both enjoyed entertaining and frequently held house parties for young friends. Their unwritten rule was that anyone over thirty "was old and out."[19] Formality was dispensed with and royal house guests were referred to by their nicknames and encouraged to do as they wished. Victoria and Ernst cultivated friends who were progressive artists and intellectuals as well as those who enjoyed fun and frolic. Victoria's cousin Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark remembered one stay there as "the jolliest, merriest house party to which I have ever been in my life."[20] However, Victoria was less enthusiastic about fulfilling her public role. She avoided answering letters, put off visits to elderly relations whose company she did not enjoy, and talked to people who amused her at official functions while ignoring people of higher standing she found boring.[21] Victoria's inattention to her duties provoked fights with Ernst. The young couple had loud, physical fights. The volatile Victoria shouted, threw tea trays, smashed china against the wall, and tossed anything that was handy at Ernst during their battles.[21] Victoria sought relief in her love for horses and long gallops over the countryside on a hard-to-control stallion named Bogdan.[22] While she was in Russia for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II, Victoria's affection for Kirill was also rekindled. She enjoyed flirting with him at the balls and celebrations that marked the coronation.[23]
Divorce
Remarriage
The couple married on 8 October 1905 in Tegernsee. It was a simple ceremony, with Victoria's mother, her sister Beatrice, and a friend, Count Adlerburg, in attendance, along with servants. The couple's uncle Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia was invited, without being told the reason, but did not arrive until after the ceremony.[36] Tsar Nicholas II responded to the marriage by stripping Kirill of his royal allowances and expelled him from the Russian navy.[37] The Tsarina was outraged and said she would never receive Victoria, "a woman who had behaved so disgracefully," or Kirill.[38] The couple retired to Paris, where they purchased a house off the Champs-Élysées and lived off the income provided by their parents.[39]
Victoria, who had matured as she entered her thirties,[40] decided to convert to the Russian Orthodox Church in 1907, a decision that thrilled both her mother and her husband.[41] That same year the first of their three children, Maria Kirillovna, was born. She was named after her grandmother and nicknamed "Masha."[41] Their second daughter, Kira Kirillovna, was born in Paris in 1909. Victoria and Kirill, who had hoped for a son, were disappointed to have a girl, but named their daughter after her father.[42]
Grand Duchess of Russia
Victoria fit in within the Russian aristocracy and the circle of her mother in law Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna.[17] As French was frequently spoken in high circles, Victoria never completely mastered the Russian language.[46] Although she was a first cousin of both Nicholas II, on her mother's side, and to Empress Alexandra, on her father's side, the relationship with them was neither close nor warm. As Kirill became a keen auto racer, the couple often took trips by car, a favorite pastime was traveling through the Baltic provinces. Victoria dreaded the long Russian winter with its short days, and she traveled abroad frequently visiting her sister Marie in Romania and her mother in the south of France or in Coburg. Victoria and her husband had a close relationship with their daughters, Maria and Kira. The family was spending the summer of 1914 on their yacht in the Gulf of Finland and were in Riga when the war broke out.[47]
War
During World War I, Victoria worked as a Red Cross nurse and organized a motorized ambulance unit that was known for its efficiency.[48] Victoria frequently visited the front near Warsaw and she occasionally carried out her duties under enemy fire. Kirill, for his part, was also in Poland, assigned to the naval department of Admiral Russin, member of the staff of Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaievitch, commander in chief of the Russian army. Kirill and Victoria had always shared their relatives' distaste for the Tsar and Tsarina's friendship with the starets Grigori Rasputin.[49] The Tsarina believed Rasputin healed her son of his hemophiliac attacks with his prayers. Victoria told her sister, Queen Marie of Romania, that the Tsar's court was "looked upon as a sick man refusing every doctor and every help."[50]
When Rasputin was murdered in December 1916, Victoria and Kirill signed a letter along with other relatives asking the Tsar to show leniency to Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, one of those implicated in the murder. The Tsar denied their request. Twice during the war Victoria visited Romania providing the country, where her sister Marie was now Queen, with help. Victoria returned to St. Petersburg in February 1917. Kirill had been appointed commander of the Naval Guards, quartered in St. Petersburg, so he could be with his family for some time. Although publicly loyal to the Tsar, Victoria and Kirill began to meet in private with other relatives to discuss the best way to save the monarchy.
Revolution
By March 1917, the revolution had spread all over St. Petersburg. During this period Victoria discovered she was again pregnant, which worried her because of her previous miscarriages and difficult pregnancies, and besides she was almost forty one years old.
At the end of the "February Revolution" of 1917, Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate and political turmoil followed.[51] Kirill led his naval unit to the Duma on 14 March 1917 and swore his loyalty to the Duma, hoping to restore order and preserve the monarchy. It was an action which provoked criticism from other members of the family, who viewed it as treason.[52] Victoria supported her husband and felt he was doing the right thing.[53] She also sympathized with the people who wanted to reform the government. Victoria wrote to Queen Marie of Romania in February 1917 that their home was surrounded by a mob, "yet heart and soul we are with this movement of freedom which at the time probably signs our own death warrant ... We personally are losing all, our lives changed at one blow and yet we are almost leading the movement."[54]
At the fall of the monarchy Kirill was forced to resign his command of the Naval Guards, but nevertheless his men remained faithful and they continued to guard Kirill and Victoria's palace on Glinka Street. Close to despair Victoria wrote to her sister Marie, Queen of Romania that they had " neither pride nor hope, nor money, nor future, and the dear past blotted out by the frightful present; nothing is left, nothing."[55]
Anxious for their safety Kirill and Victoria decided that the best thing to do was to leave Russia. They chose Finland as the best possible place to go. Although a territory of the Russian Empire, Finland possessed its own government and constitution, so in a way it would be like being in Russia and not being at the same time. They had already been once invited to Haikko, a beautiful estate, near Borgå, a small town on the south coast of Finland, not far away from Helsinki. The Provisional Government permitted them to leave, though they were not allowed to take anything of value with them. They sewed jewels into the family's clothing, hoping it would not be discovered by the authorities.[56] They were permitted to board a train without incident in the first week of June 1917.
Exile
After two weeks in Haiko, the family moved to a rented house in Porvoo where, in August 1917, Victoria gave birth to Grand Duke Vladimir Kirillovich of Russia, her only son and the heir to the dynasty.[57] The family remained in Finland, a former Grand Duchy under Russian rule, which had declared its independence in December 1917. They hoped that the White Russians would prevail. They gradually ran out of supplies and had to beg for help from family. In July 1918, Victoria wrote her first cousin, Margaret, the Crown Princess of Sweden, begging her to send baby food so she could feed Vladimir.[58] She was alienated from England because she felt her English relatives had not done enough to help the Romanovs.[59]
She pleaded with her cousin, George V, to help the White Russians retake the country. In a letter to the King, Lord Acton, the British Minister in Helsinki, noted the toll the revolution had taken on Victoria. She "looked aged and battered and has lost much of her beauty, which is not astonishing considering all that she has gone through,".[60]
After more than two years living under strained conditions in the autumn of 1919 Victoria and Kirill left Finland and went to Germany.[61] In Munich they were reunited with Victoria's mother and the family group moved to Zurich in September 1919.[62] With the death of Victoria's mother, she inherited her villa, Chateau Fabron in Nice and her residence in Coburg, the Edinburgh Palace. In the following years the exiled family divided their time between these two places.[63][64]
While in Germany, Victoria showed an interest in the Nazi Party, which appealed to her because of its anti-Bolshevik stance and her hope that the movement might help restore the Russian monarchy.[65] She and Kirill attended a Nazi rally in Coburg in 1922 and Victoria donated money to the party. She was likely unaware of the most sinister aspects of the Nazi Party.[66]
Claims to the Russian throne
Kirill suffered a nervous breakdown in 1923 and Victoria nursed him back to health. She encouraged his dreams of restoring the monarchy in Russia and becoming Tsar.[67] At Saint-Briac, Kirill officially declared himself the Guardian of the Throne in 1924.[68] Victoria went on a trip to the United States in 1924, hoping to raise American support for restoring the monarchy.[69] Her attempt did not meet with success, due to the isolationism prevalent in the United States during the 1920s.[70] She continued in her efforts to help Kirill restore the monarchy and also sold her artwork to raise money for the household.[71]
By the mid-1920s Victoria worried over the prospects of her children. Maria, her eldest daughter married a relatively minor prince, Friedrich Karl, the Hereditary Prince of Leiningen on 25 November 1925, Victoria’s forty ninth birthday.[72] Victoria was at her daughter's bedside when she gave birth to her first child, Emich Kirill, in 1926.[73] She also attended the subsequent births of Maria's children.
In the mid-1920s the German government established relations with Moscow and the presence of Kirill and his wife, pretenders to the Russian throne, became an embarrassment.[74] Although the Bavarian government rejected pressures to expel the Russian claimant, Kirill and Victoria decided to establish their permanent residence in France.[75] In the summer of 1926 they moved to Saint-Briac on the Breton coast, where they had spent their summer vacations before.[76] The remoteness of Brittany provided both privacy and security. They bought a large house on the outskirts of the town and gave it a Breton name, Ker Argonid, Villa Victoria. The resort town of Saint-Briac was a favorite spot for retired British citizens who wanted to live well on a limited income. Victoria made friends among the Britons as well as the French and other foreign residents of the town, who enjoyed associating with a Royal. Though at first her manner could seem haughty, residents soon discovered that Victoria was more approachable than her husband. Their friends treated them with deference, curtsying or calling them by their Royal titles.[77] They lived a secluded country life, finding it more agreeable than at Coburg.[73]
Victoria was exceedingly protective of her son Vladimir, upon whom her hopes for the future rested. She would not let him attend school because she was worried about his safety and because she wanted him to be brought up as Romanov Grand Dukes were prior to the revolution. Instead, she hired a tutor for him. She also refused to let him be educated for a future career.[78] In return for her devotion, Vladimir loved and respected his mother. "We adored our parents and their love for us was infinite," Vladimir wrote after their deaths. "All the hardships and bitterness we had to endure in the years were fully covered by our mutual love. We were proud of (them.)"[79]
Last years
Victoria was buried in the family mausoleum at Rosenau in Coburg, Germany, until her remains were transferred to the Grand Ducal Mausoleum of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St.Petersburg on 7 March 1995. Her husband was intensely lonely after her death. The marriage of their daughter, Kira, to Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, in 1938 was a bright spot for Kirill, who saw it as the joining of two dynasties. However, Kirill died just two years after his wife.[85] Kirill, though he had been unfaithful, still loved and missed the wife he had depended so much upon and passed his remaining years writing memoirs of their life together.[86] "There are few who in one person combine all that is best in soul, mind, and body," he wrote. "She had it all, and more. Few there are who are fortunate in having such a woman as the partner of their lives -- I was one of those privileged."[87]
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles and styles
- 25 November 1876 – 22 August 1893: Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Edinburgh
- 22 August 1893 – 9 April 1894: Her Royal Highness Princess Viktoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- 9 April 1894 – 21 December 1901: Her Royal Highness The Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine
- 21 December 1901 – 1908[88]: Her Royal Highness Princess Viktoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
- 1907 – 2 March 1936: Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Viktoria Feodorovna of Russia
British arms
As a male-line grandchild of the British monarch, Victoria Melita bore the royal arms, with an inescutcheon for Saxony, the whole differenced by a label of five points argent, the outer pair bearing hearts gules, the inner pair anchors azure, and the central point a cross gules.[89] In 1917, the inescutcheon was dropped by royal warrant. Her arms from that point on are duplicated in the arms of Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy.
Ancestry
Notes
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. |
- ↑ Michael John Sullivan, A Fatal Passion: The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia, Random House, 1997, p. 7
- ↑ Yvonne's Royalty Home Page — Royal Christenings
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 34
- ↑ John Van der Kiste, Princess Victoria Melita, Sutton Publishing, 1991, pp. 15
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Sullivan, p. 37
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 56
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 38
- ↑ Van der Kiste, p. 14
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 63
- ↑ Sullivan, pp. 80-82
- ↑ Sullivan, pp. 87-88
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 115
- ↑ John Curtis Perry and Constantine Pleshakov, The Flight of the Romanovs, Basic Books, 1999, p. 83
- ↑ Sullivan, pp. 93, 114
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 113
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 114
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Sullivan, p. 126
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Sullivan, pp. 217-218
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 146
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 148
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Sullivan, p. 152
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 153
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 157
- ↑ Terence Elsberry, Marie of Romania, St. Martin's Press, 1972, p.62
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 182
- ↑ Sullivan, pp. 189-190
- ↑ Van der Kiste, pp. 60-61
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 Sullivan, p. 208
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 209
- ↑ Van der Kiste, p. 81
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 223
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 224
- ↑ Charlotte Zeepvat, The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, Sutton Publishing, 2004, p. 107
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 229
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 230
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 233
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 236
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 237.
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 243
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 246
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 Sullivan, p. 247
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 252
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 253
- ↑ Sullivan, pp. 274-275.
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 262
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 254
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 283
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 288
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 271
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 272
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 313
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 314
- ↑ Sullivan, pp. 311-312
- ↑ Zeepvat, p. 214
- ↑ Van der Kiste, 105
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 321
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 325
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 333
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 341
- ↑ Perry and Pleshakov, p. 228
- ↑ Van der Kiste, p. 145
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 343
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 349
- ↑ Van der Kiste, p. 147
- ↑ Sullivan, pp. 353-354
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 354
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 355
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 357
- ↑ Sullivan, 364
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 371
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 379
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 374
- ↑ 73.0 73.1 Sullivan, p. 377
- ↑ 74.0 74.1 74.2 74.3 Van der Kiste, p. 163
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 375
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 376
- ↑ Perry and Pleshakov, pp. 307-308
- ↑ Van der Kiste, p. 139
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 390
- ↑ Perry and Pleshakov, p. 308
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 393
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 395
- ↑ Sullivan, 404
- ↑ Sullivan, pp. 403-404
- ↑ Sullivan, pp. 406-407
- ↑ Perry and Pleshakov, p. 309
- ↑ Sullivan, p. 234
- ↑ "Death Wins Pardon for a Grand Duke", New York Times, November 18, 1908: "A ukase issued to-night restores Grand Duke to his former rank as Captain in the navy and aide de camp to the Emperor."
- ↑ Heraldica – British Royal Cadency
Bibliography
- van der Kiste, John. Princess Victoria Melita, Sutton Publishing, 1991, ISBN 0-7509-3469-7
- Maylunas, Andrei and Sergei Mironenko. A Lifelong Passion: Nicholas and Alexandra: Their Own Story, Doubleday, 1997, ISBN 0-385-48673-1
- Perry, John Curtis and Constantine Pleshakov. The Flight of the Romanovs, Basic Books, 1999, ISBN 04650246209
- Sullivan, Michael John. A Fatal Passion: The Story of the Uncrowned Last Empress of Russia, Random House, 1997, ISBN 0-679-42400-8
- Zeepvat, Charlotte. The Camera and the Tsars: A Romanov Family Album, Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7509-3049-7
External links
- "Victoria Melita of Edinburgh (1876-1936)", by Jesus Ibarra.
Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Cadet branch of the House of Wettin Born: 25 November 1876 Died: 2 March 1936 | ||
German royalty | ||
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Vacant Title last held by Alice of the United Kingdom |
Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine 9 April 1894 – 21 December 1901 |
Vacant Title next held by Eleonore of Solms-Hohensolms-Lich |
Titles in pretence | ||
Vacant Title last held by Alix of Hesse and by Rhine |
— TITULAR — Empress consort of Russia 31 August 1924 – 2 March 1936 Reason for succession failure: Empire abolished in 1917 |
Vacant Title next held by Leonida Georgievna |
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